Time Travel Fun
by Mnsk
Summary: When the shinobi of Konoha get their hands upon a time seal, they do the only logical thing that can be expected from mature adults: They take turns! Series of light oneshots. Chapter four: Anko tries to prevent Orochimaru's defection. How? With puppy-eyes and dango, of course! Marked as complete, but there may be more.
1. The Eternal Rivalry

**Chapter 1 – Maito Gai & The Eternal Rivalry**

Maito Gai was not someone who had many issues with his life. Although some would add bullying into the category of 'traumatic experiences', he only saw his less-than-perfect childhood as another aspect of the Springtime of Youth that he had most Youthfully persevered through.

But that didn't mean he had no use for time travel.

There was _one _thing that had always left a black smear on his record, and that was Hatake Kakashi. Although he had eventually become skilled enough at rock-paper-scissors to even out their record, the earlier days had been pitiful. He had challenged his eternal rival to spar after spar and lost every time, blaming his own lack of skill.

He could change that now. He could go back in time and begin his Eternal Rivalry _all over again, _and this time he would lead from the very beginning. He poured as much chakra into the seal as he could possibly manage to go as far back in time as he could. _Everybody _would acknowledge the power of Konoha's Sublime Blue Beast!

And so, Gai found himself running towards the Hatake family house in his small, five-year-old body, a red sash tied around his waist in place of the hitai-ite he had yet to receive. When he reached the modest house, he didn't bother with the front door.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" He yelled, crashing in through the sliding doors behind the breakfast table. Despite his young age, it seemed that his leg muscles were somehow coping with his increased technique.

Inside, two people stared as they saw the green-clad leg emerge from their sliding door, the rest of an equally green-clad body quickly following, until they were faced with Maito Gai, standing proudly with his hands on his hips.

Hatake Sakumo, upon seeing that he was only a young boy, let go of the tanto he had been fingering at the first hint of danger. Sitting opposite from him, his young son Kakashi paused from where he had been cracking an egg into his bowl of rice with the utmost concentration that only a four-and-a-half-year-old boy could manage.

"Kashi-kun, is this one of your friends from the academy?" Hatake Sakumo asked wearily, various lines appearing on his face as he took in the torn sliding door and began to mentally allocate his next mission's pay.

"I do not know this person, Otou-san," the small boy replied, on the verge of stating that he didn't make friends. He instead turned to look at the _green _person who had disrupted his weekend lunch.

"I am Konoha's Noble Blue Beast, Maito Gai!" Gai declared, "and I am a future Shinobi of Konoha!

"That's lovely. Why did you find the need to break my door to inform me of this?" Sakumo raised an eyebrow tiredly while his son continued to stare at the newcomer.

"Not you, my Rival's most Youthful father," Gai clarified, "I am here to challenge your son to a spar!"

"A spar?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow. He was a talented kid, but no one had ever come to challenge him before. Did this sort of thing happen often to shinobi?

"My son just joined the academy six months ago," his father sighed, "I really don't think this is the time to-"

"Nonsense! The Fires of Youth Burn Brightly in young Kakashi," Gai protested, "he will be a skilled and worthy opponent!"

It was true that sometimes, flattery could get you anywhere. The words went straight to little Kakashi's egoistically large head.

"I'll fight him," the boy declared with all the pride that his four-and-a-half-year old self could manage.

"…Kashi-kun?..." Sakumo raised an eyebrow and wondered if he should be worried.

"Yosh!" Gai said happily, pointing a finger directly at the smaller boy, "from this day on, you shall be my Eternal Rival!"

"Right," Kakashi nodded sharply, flattered that an older student who had managed to take down a door with one kick had acknowledged his skill. After all, he was the best in his class, and had various teachers telling him that he could graduate within the year.

"Aha…wait a minute," Sakumo interrupted, looking from his son to the strange boy in green, "I don't even know who you are…isn't this a little…sudden?"

Kakashi pushed his discarded bowl of rice away and slipped out of the chair. Gai stood with his arms crossed over his chest and a winning smile on his face that almost blinded the poor man spluttering and asking what was going on.

Neither of the boys were paying any attention to him.

An Eternal Rivalry had been reborn.


	2. The Tenth Question

**Chapter 2 – Morino Ibiki & The Tenth Question**

When Morino Ibiki got his hands on a time travel scroll, he knew exactly _when _he wanted to go.

Of course, he had had many troubles in his life, and being the head of T&I promised some rather _frightening _experiences that would have been nice to prevent from happening. But in actuality, he was rather proud of having been through those experiences. They built character. And he liked those scars on his forehead.

He didn't want to risk using _too _much chakra to go all the way back to his youth. No, there was one specific day that he desperately wanted to relive.

The day he had lost his reputation as the most fearsome man in Fire Country.

Yes, after _that _day, people forgot to cower and shake when he entered the room. They forgot to warn scare their students with mentions of him. His colleagues began to greet him good morning when they heard how he had passed _thirty _genin during the first task, especially since they had bet good money on half that amount making it through.

Just because of one stupid boy with a motivation speech.

And so he found himself once again standing in at the front of the chunin exam centre, facing dozens of shaking genin.

"The tenth question," he began, "was not on the paper. You have to _decide _if you want to take it."

He waited for dramatic effect while the genin took in his words.

"If you get this question wrong, you will never be allowed to participate in the chunin exams again."

"Oi!" A Kusa genin called, "some of us are here for the second time! There was nothing like this last time!"

"_I _am the head of these exams. _I _get to decide how to run them. Stay or leave," Ibiki presented the ultimatum.

"Well, I'm out," one of his plants stood up and walked out of the room.

"Sorry guys. I hope this bastard isn't here next year," an Oto nin muttered, following the plant.

Ibiki turned his gaze to the small, pink-haired girl sitting at the front, gleefully awaiting for her to make her move. Just as he had predicted, she slowly bit her lip in concentration, looking towards the door.

"This is so unfair," an older Konoha nin stood up angrily, leaving.

As more genin left, he kept his eyes trained on the pinkette, watching as she slowly began to stand up.

"I'm not going to give up!"

Ah, there it was. Ibiki looked at the blond boy in the orange jumpsuit, standing up on his chair with determination in his eyes.

"I won't lose here!" he declared, "I'll face anything that's put my way, because I never give up and that's my Ninja Way! So what if I'm a genin forever? There's no rule that states the Hokage can't be a genin!" He said triumphantly, looking rather proud of himself.

"Naruto's right," Inuzuka Kiba added, "we won't lose."

"Erm…we will represent Suna with pride!" A blond girl stated, looking shiftily at the red-haired boy sitting beside her.

"I will validate my existence here," the boy rasped.

"I'll just…help my brother do…that," another boy with kabuki paint nodded.

"Hmph, I'm not backing down," Yamanaka Ino huffed.

"Well, the door's all the way over there and I'm all the way over here…it's too troublesome to leave."

"We're gonna show everyone that Ame is strong!" Another voice piped up.

"If N-Naruto-kun is staying…"

"My success here is fated."

"Ch. I'll answer it."

"Yosh! I will approach this question with the Power of Youth!"

"I was almost top kunoichi in my year. I can answer anything you give me."

"I will stay. Why? Because I am intelligent."

"Sensei promised barbeque for dinner if I get through. A true man never says no to barbeque."

"Alright," Sakura sat back down and looked on with determination, "if Naruto wants to stay, then I'll leave it to him."

"Are the _thirty _of you _sure _you wish to stay?" Morino Ibiki asked once again.

"Yes!" A collective shout answered him.

"Well then, _Hokage-sama _and friends," Ibiki smirked, "it seems that all _thirty_ of you wish to remain to answer the tenth question."

"It's a trick, isn't it?" The Uchiha genius asked, arms crossed over his chest, "you're going to pass all of us for having the determination to stay."

Dozens of hopeful eyes stared down at him.

Morino Ibiki smirked, "a good guess…but no," he turned towards the board and picked up the chalk, ignoring the collective groans from behind him.

"Now you're in a clearing, and there are enemies at four, nine, and twelve o'clock. Each of them throws three kunai at fifteen meters per second, at what angle would you have to…"

When he finished writing out the question, he looked back to see the hope fleeing from young eyes. It was a beautiful sight. Uzumaki Naruto looked especially confused, and was scratching his head while peering at the board. He was probably having trouble _reading _the question, let alone _understanding _it or _answering _it.

On the inside, Morino Ibiki crackled with insane laughter. _Fail, boy, fail! _He cheered mentally.

The second task was skipped.

The first match was Sakura vs. Shikamaru.

Shikamaru walked out because it was too troublesome.

There were no other matches.

Needless to say, the chunin exams were canceled that year.


	3. The Compliant Kitten

**Chapter 3 – Yamato & His Senpai's Kitten**

Some people thought that, apart from being cruelly experimented on and having foreign genetic data inserted into his genes throughout most of his childhood, former anbu operative Tenzou was a rather normal guy.

They would be right. He was the average twenty-year-old shinobi. Super-powerful mokuton aside, he was a decent recruit and a loyal citizen of Konoha. However, there was one thing that always got on his nerves.

Hatake Kakashi.

It was not to be taken the wrong way. The man, anbu operative Dog, had saved his life more times than he could count and he had tried his best to return the favor. In fact, Dog had been known to _never _allow _any _of his teammates to die - something about a traumatic experience (the anbu didn't usually look into those, because traumatic experiences were practically a requirement). Kakashi would have easily been the best superior in the anbu forces…if it wasn't for all his bullying.

Yes, he was a slave driver. And not just with everyone: with Tenzou in particular. Why? Because he had taken one look at the Cat mask and decided this man would be the one to knight to minionhood – also known as slavehood.

And so Yamato – who was Tenzou once more – stepped into Hatake Kakashi's anbu captain quarters, once again in his sixteen-year-old body.

"Ah, Tenzou-kun," as always, the masked anbu member was sprawled across the sofa, book containing questionable material held loosely in one hand. He hadn't even looked up when his subordinate entered the room.

"My mission is complete, senpai," Tenzou nodded sharply. He was a rather new recruit, so when he went on missions that were not lead by his superior, he still had to report in to him.

"Good. Could you make me some tea," he pointed lazily across the room, "I think my Owl moved the teabags to some other drawer while she was making herself some. I'm sure you'll find them eventually."

Ah, there it was. Across the room was a counter with a teapot. Below it were drawers. Thirty of them. This room was meant to be used by all the squad captains, after all. On a normal day, poor Cat would have to go tediously searching through each of them – a task that would take a good half an hour – until he found his senpai's favorite teabags.

Then he would carefully make the tea, and measure out exactly two-hundred-fifty milliliters – one of these days, his arrogant senpai _was _going to ask him to account for the meniscus – into his favorite teacup and take it over to him, where he would not even look up from his book.

Tenzou straightened, and prepared for what seemed to be the test of his life. He had travelled back in time. Was he going to stick up for himself, or cower down before the Great Copy-nin like he had done before?

"Anbu field journal, section two page four," Tenzou began, "liquids must not be drunk before carrying out a mission." He would start with the small things.

This time, the Great Hatake Kakashi actually looked up from his book to analyze him with his one revealed eye, "that's there because some poor rookies vomit after they make their kills. Have you seen me vomit, Kitten?"

Kitten. Tenzou thought a Cat rather suited him. He liked to think he was sly and clever, able to whisk by a mission with merely a bat of his paw. Kakashi made the title seem childish with the way he always used the baby-version.

"No? Good, because I don't. I killed my first enemy shinobi when I was ten and then I moved on the kill the next one. Tea, please," he continued absently. With that, he returned to his book.

Tenzou was _not _going to give up. He had come back in time, dammit! He had to _change _his life! For the better!

"Why is it always me that you ask to do these things," he asked in a voice that he hoped sounded stern, "why don't you make the tea yourself?"

The tired looking eye surrounded by a mask appeared from over the book again, watching him with a searching look, "I like _Tenzou-kun's_ tea," he replied simply.

Tenzou raised an eyebrow, "that doesn't explain why you make me write your reports-"

"I'm providing you with anbu captain-level experience."

"-and carry your tent on missions-"

"I'm helping you develop your muscles."

"-and you expect me to bring enough ration bars for both of us-"

"You should be glad, because that means I have to stay close to you during missions."

"-and I never get any recognition!"

"Did my Kitten grow a backbone?" His voice was filled with amusement, "come on, just make the tea."

Tenzou stood straight and mustered all the courage he possessed.

"Anbu Team Dynamics, section four page three," he reported, "subordinates and superiors must maintain a strictly professional relationship at all times."

"Ah, so you've been reading the rule books. No one reads those," the book fell to his side as the Legendary Copy-nin watched his subordinate closely.

"They _do _contain the rules, though," Tenzou replied virtuously.

Oh Tenzou-kun," Kakashi's eye crinkled in a smile, "those rules are made to prevent grief in case the subordinate or superior dies. But long as you're my teammate I won't allow anyone to kill you," the soft smile remained on his face and he didn't look the least bit embarrassed after having said something so sweet. He watched his subordinate's slight blush in amusement.

"I'll just…go find those teabags," Tenzou muttered, turning towards the counter.

Damn Kakashi-senpai.


	4. The Plate of Dango

**Chapter 4 – Mitarashi Anko & the Plate of Dango**

Although Mitarashi Anko had various problems that she would have loved to change, many of them had a common source.

Yes, the Snake Sannin, the self-proclaimed master of ninjutsu, and Anko's very own sensei.

Her mother had been a mid-level chunin, and her father was a run-of-the-mill civilian who worked as a server at a dango place. You couldn't get more average if you tried. But somehow, she'd made a name for herself in the academy. Despite her dismissive attitude, she had a sharp eye for calculations and a talent for ninjutsu.

That had been the beginning of a learning experience that Anko was frankly still proud of. Orochimaru had not been lenient by any stretch of the imagination, but he had helped get become strong. She had respected him for that.

And so Anko was determined to change things. At first she had considered going back and stabbing the traitor in the chest for making her suffer, but she now had a different idea. After all, he hadn't always been evil. If she could somehow stop him from doing experiments and leaving Konoha, then she could have her sensei _and_ her curse-less chakra back.

Which was why she was currently sitting beside the twenty year old Orochimaru on a bench in training ground eight. Her legs were swinging in the free air where she wasn't yet tall enough for them to reach the ground, and in her arms was a paper plate piled with freshly bought dango. She was now ten.

Beside her, Orochimaru was peering through a scroll, long fingers tracing the images of fuuin symbols. Her sensei was always studying. Seeing that he looked human again, she almost didn't feel like stabbing him to death.

He kept shooting her curious glances.

"Anko," he began in a voice that was as rough as ever, "training is over today. I thought you said that your legs were sore."

"I know," Anko replied happily, having returned to the past right in the middle of her training run, "want some dango, Orochimaru-sensei?" She always got them cheap due to her father's position in the shop, and they quickly became her signature food.

The pale man raised one eyebrow at the smiling girl, "you know I don't like sweet things."

"I suppose I can give the rest to Jiraiya-sensei on the way back…" She went on, aware of his weak spot. Jiraiya had been ecstatic when he had seen that his teammate's chosen student had been a cute little girl.

Orochimaru wordlessly took a dango from her paper plate and bit into it, wincing at the sweetness.

"What are you reading?" She asked, peering over his shoulder. She needed to find an appropriate way to broach the topic. Going up to him and demanding that he remain within the village would just be suspicious.

"Too advanced for you, Anko," he replied absently.

"Oh yeah?" She leaned over to gesture at a rendition of a seal, "that's a circle based seal. Considering that the Tiger symbols cover either end, it's meant to seal chakra. Why are you studying this, sensei?" She wondered if maybe it was too late for him.

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, "have you been spending any time with that perverted fool? I should get a restraining order on your behalf." Jiraiya was the only other fuuinjutsu master he knew of.

"No, I've just been reading things," Anko replied happily, trying to use the full extent of her previous cuteness, "what's it for, sensei?"

"Nothing that you would be interested in," he said dismissively, "I've been…exploring the concept of sealing chakra-based abilities inside people, to make them stronger. It's never been attempted before, but I think I could make it work. I'd have to design the seal with six corners and a reverse-circular base… "

Oh good, he wasn't too far gone. He probably hadn't begun experimenting on children yet.

"Something like that couldn't possibly work," she declared, "and no one would agree to it. The reverse circular base means that the chakra will respond to a person, and no one wants their powers to be _controlled_ by someone."

He shot her a calculating look, "what…things…have you been reading?"

"Oh just stuff from the reference library," she waved off, "I'm trying to become as smart as you, sensei!"

With one last look, he went back to the scrolls. Anko sighed. This was harder than she thought. It was practically impossible to convince him to drop something of academic value. Then again, there was something _else _she could target.

"Orochimaru-sensei?"

"Yes, Anko?" At this point his voice was exasperated, and he was giving her the 'I dislike you' look, which at some point in the future became his 'I want to stick the Blade of Kusanagi in you' look.

"Is it true that you want to be Hokage?" She asked.

"Why are you still here, Anko?" He sighed, "I only signed up for a _maximum_ of four hours of child-interaction in a day…"

"Because I think that the Hokage is a stupid position to have," she told him seriously, "I mean, there's no freedom, and you have the entire village on your shoulders. Orochimaru-sensei is too smart to be Hokage."

Now he had put the scroll down and was focused on her, "the Hokage is the strongest shinobi in the village," he said, black hair falling over one eye and making him look _slightly _more like the psychopath he once became.

"And also the stupidest," Anko informed him, "smart shinobi are better, and they stay away from the position, leaving the powerful nut-heads to take it."

At that, there was a hint of a smile before he turned away, "you have such interesting opinions, Anko."

Damn. She knew that look in his eyes, and it was _not_ the 'I think I should change my mind' look. How on earth was she supposed to do this? If she mentioned anything about time travel, he'd have her strapped down to an experimentation table in minutes.

Finally, she decided to be straight forward about it.

"Orochimaru-sensei?"

"I didn't know that being a jonin-sensei meant I'd have to sacrifice my study time. Is it to late to give you to someone else?" He wondered. Anko knew he wouldn't actually do it. Despite not admitting it, he had been quite proud of her.

"I'll go away if you promise me something," she stated.

He looked back at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Promise me that you'll never leave the village," she insisted, mustering all the seriousness that her ten-year-old self was capable of displaying.

"I'm a shinobi," he replied tiredly.

"What does that have to do with it?"

"I have go on missions, you know. Difficult ones that don't include helping my troublesome student rescue lost pets."

"Well sure you can leave, but just don't _leave_," she stressed.

He looked at her confusedly and was probably seriously rethinking his career as a jonin-sensei.

"I mean, promise that you'll always stay loyal to the village," Anko clarified, "and that you'll never betray us."

"Where is this coming from?" He asked, the slightest hints of concern now showing, "did I do something that makes you think I'll betray you?" It was strange to see actual emotion in him after seeing him as an emotionless bastard for so many years.

"Well, no, but you seem like the type," Anko admitted.

"The…type?..."

"Just promise."

"Fine, I wasn't planning to betray Konoha anyway, Hiruzen-sensei would drag me back and set his monkeys on me. Now take your dango and go away, I don't want to see another human under the age of eighteen for at _least_ ten hours," he pushed the hair away from his eye and took out a brush, making small markings next to the seals on the scroll.

"Yes, Orochimaru-sensei!" Anko grinned. She knew something about Orochimaru that few other people did.

He didn't give his word easily, but his pride would never allow him to break it.

**ooooo**

**If you like this story, you might want to try the other, _much longer _story on our profile, 'An Unwanted Chance'.**

**I'd appreciate it if you left a review with some feedback, or other characters and scene ideas ^^!**


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